Just a Dollar

Gov. Deal has stockpiled millions, and outside special interest groups have already spent a million dollars attacking us on TV and in the mail.

We’re running a different kind of campaign. Instead of counting on special interests in Washington, we are depending on real people like you.

June 30 is the deadline for us to report our fundraising totals. I want to show how many people have joined this campaign.

One dollar is all it takes to add your name to our list of grassroots supporters. Please consider contributing now: www.carterforgovernor.com/one-dollar.

Thanks for all you do.

Sincerely,
Jason

The plea to chip in a dollar to counteract the efforts of the Republican incumbent reminded me of a very similar email from Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist, who’s running to become Florida’s governor:

Subject: Place a buck on the table

Friend —

I’m asking you to do something very easy:

Donate just $1 before our deadline at midnight tonight.

$1 might seem like nothing. But what shows our strength is the number of people who decide to place a buck on the table and say “I’m in.”

Rick Scott thinks $100 million in special-interest money can drown out the voice of the people.

You and I know better.

Take one minute and please, give just $1 before midnight tonight:

https://donate.charliecrist.com/April-Goal

God bless you,

Charlie

Ignore for the moment that according to recent campaign reports, Carter has raised $1.9 million, much of it undoubtedly from special interests in Washington, or that the Crist campaign raised over $925,000 in April alone.

Both Carter and Crist have adopted the tactic of getting supporters to donate a buck to their campaigns. Obviously, a dollar doesn’t go very far to fund ads and other campaign expenses.

What it does do, though, is get individual donors to put a little skin into the game. Visiting the campaign website to make that small donation is also a part of the voter targeting efforts of each campaign. Those that visit to make that small donation will likely see more of the candidate’s ads as they travel the Internet, and they may get additional targeted email as well. Finally, it lets each campaign claim the support of hundreds or thousands of small donors — a fact that could come up in later campaign messaging comparing the challenger’s support to that if the incumbent.